“For every fundamentalist who loves the Bible more than Christ, I’m willing to bet there is one emergent Christian who honors the Bible less than Christ did” from “Why We’re Not Emergent by Two Guys Who Should Be”

“A gentle tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit.” Proverbs 15:4

“The lips of the wise spread knowledge; not so the hearts of fools.” Proverbs 15:7

“The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord, but gracious words are pure.” Proverbs 15: 26

“The heart of the righteous ponders how to answer,but the mouth of the wicked pours out evil things.” Provers 15: 28

“The fear of the Lord is instruction in wisdom, and humility comes before honor.” Proverbs 15: 33

A small sampling from Proverbs 15 reminds us how powerful words are. We may still remember the chant “stick and stones may break my bones” but we know words have more power than we wish they held. We are losing the art of gentle words in our culture and at times, even in the life of Christians and the church.

If you find you are having a problem with your words, may I suggest a few things…

– Understand it’s a heart issue

Sometimes we try to justify ourselves by saying “That’s just who I am” or “I’m just like my mom (or dad)” and continue on. While we can have in our personalty certain tendencies that lead us to be critical or negative, it doesn’t mean it’s ok. Your words still alienate, separate, and crush others at times. If we roll with our earthly tendencies and don’t work them into submission to God’s ways, we continue a cycle that impacts others and ourselves.

– Understand you are hurting others

You might think you are direct and others should appreciate it but I can’t tell you how many people come to me for life counseling because the anger, hurt, or weight they are feeling because of someone in their life dumping on them in unloving ways (again, often times Christians).

If you find that you enjoy the emotional release of unloading on others, there’s a good chance you are hurting them.

If you find that you enjoy talking about frustrations and grips with others to people other than the ones you struggle with, there’s a good chance you are hurting the person outside the loop and the one within it.

If you find that you need to tear others down to build yourself up, your just hurting everyone including how others see you.

– Understand things can turn around

You have the chance to earn others seeing you different. You may not be aware but you may have some nicknames you would rather not know about. However, by following the proverbs above, you can be know as an “encourager”!

Some of the words above can be foreign to us in our speech … soft, gentle, and pure. However, through discipline, taking a breath and speaking with the Spirit’s lead; you too can be righteous and ponder what words (and heart) to embrace. It just starts with humbling yourself, leaning into the ways of God and letting Him raise you up.

Words lead to broken marriages. Words lead to split churches. Words lead to failed friendships. Words lead to insecurity and loss.

Why does it seem that so many people who claim to be Christians have lives that are stressed out, hypercritical, and look nothing different than most anyone else? They claim to follow Jesus but instead continue in a cycle of actions are not of God and end up in places of regret and bondage.

If you believe in God, believe in Jesus and/or just think God wants you to a good person and that’s it…… this study is for you.

In this study, we will explore the disconnect between faith and actions. We may not be able to fix the world by ourselves but we can make new steps in changing the worlds around us.

Few topics divide the world and the church like homosexuality. For that matter, few things divide the church like the same topic.

The issues within the GLBT community effect our politics, views, and most of all… personal lives. Many have been hurt, driven to anger or just fall away over past hurts and experiences and the divide deepens.

At The Shepherd’s Fellowship, we believe in 100% love and 100% truth. Can this also apply to the conversation of homosexuality? Be part of our study and see what you find as we dig into a hot button but critical study.

I came across this clip on Simply Ecclesia. It’s a great site with different contributors and I encourage you to check it out. However, this clip from “Speaking of Faith” with Chuck Colson, Greg Boyd and Shane Claibourne is very interesting. Check it out….

Welcome

Hi, I'm Tom and this is my web-site. Sometimes, within ministry, it seems there are only two options.....to be a believer of the Scripture and be seen as being self righteous, judgmental, and hyprocritical or believe you have to water down the Bible to being loving, merciful, and full of grace. Well, I fall in the middle of all that...I am an emerging conservative. I am in love with the community and relational spirituality as seen in the Bible and the ministry of Jesus Christ and believe we can have it here today! Join in on the conversation, won't you?